Wow. Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews! The end of this week has been kind of crappy, but because of all the support for the story, it had a happy note too, so thanks! This is the most reviews I've ever gotten for one single chapter, and I owe it all to you guys. This is a quick update for me; the other chapters may not come as quickly since I'm probably going to be swamped in the coming months.
Lark: Yeah, I hate Mary Sues too. Although I am guilty of writing one as my very first story here. Just wondering, what's Virtual Chocolate Bribes?
Twisted Flame: Thanks for the compliment! It means a lot since I really love your stories. Hope I can write up to the expectations.
Enjoy!
Chris couldn't believe it.
He was dead.
Apparently. That's what Paige's explanation of a "whitelighter" was. They were basically angels, good beings who died and were called to a greater duty. Chris certainty didn't feel dead. He felt alive, and more confused than ever. Obviously magic existed, unless he was somehow being hypnotized or something. But everything–the fact that demons exist, that he's an angel, that the three sisters were witches . . . it was all a little much to digest.
That and the fact that he is from the future, here to stop an evil tyrant who is now staring innocently at him in a playpen, wearing little ducky pajamas.
If the situation wasn't very real and serious, it would have been laughable.
"Wow. You guys have a really bad deal." Chris commented again, still feeling overwhelmed at all this new information.
Paige waved it aside. "Yeah, well . . . there are benefits too, I guess. I mean, seriously, how many people can use magic? Do you know how much gas money I save from being able to orb around to places instead of driving? And I could go to, like, France in a few seconds."
"So . . . are you dead too?" Chris asked slowly.
"Naw. I'm half-witch, half-whitelighter, so I get the orbing, but not the dead part."
Chris stared at her, looking slightly wary of her cheerful tone. "Right."
He addressed his attention at the other sister, who's constant touching of him was getting really, really irritating. Whipping his head around angrily, Chris asked with as much venom in his voice as he could, "Do you mind?"
Phoebe grinned sheepishly at him. "Sorry. Just trying to get a premonition."
"A what?"
"Premonition. The ability to see the future. I'm just trying to see if I can see anything in your future that can show us any place familiar to you so we can jolt your memory back."
Chris sank deeper into the couch. "This sucks,"
"No kidding," Paige shot back sarcastically.
Throwing an annoyed glare at her, he retorted, "Hey, you're not the one who can't remember your own name."
Phoebe chuckled. "Do you think he's been spending time around us too much? I swear that glare he just sent you was exactly like Piper's."
Chris stared at her curiously, again that nagging feeling of familiarity bothering him.
His musings was distracted by a yelp from Phoebe.
"Shit! I'm going to be late! Bye!"
Paige waved at her sister's retreating back. "Bye?" The witch-whitelighter glanced at her watch. "Oh . . . whoops, I was supposed to help Piper experiment with that memory restoration potion . . . just rest up or something. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen!"
Chris didn't feel like resting up. This house, this place, it all felt extremely familiar to him. He walked over to Wyatt, their eyes locking for a moment. Nothing about the kid looked evil or even a bit tyrannical. Wyatt continued to stare at him with his bright, inquisitive blue eyes, his face suddenly erupting into a smile.
Slowly steadying himself, Wyatt hobbled over to the other side of the playpen, grabbing a soft, blue ball and offering it to Chris. Smiling despite himself, Chris accepted it.
But it seems that Wyatt changed his mind, because the ball was suddenly orbed out of Chris's fingertips and into Wyatt's hands, who clapped cheerfully.
Letting Wyatt entertain himself with the ball, Chris's mind wandered for a moment, to one of the many mysteries that have plagued his mind non stop.
Leo. Why did he feel such a strong sense of hatred for the man? All things considered, how did he even know him? This whole time travel thing was really giving Chris a massive headache.
Suddenly, to Chris's displeasure, the man himself orbed in.
"What are you doing here?" Chris demanded coldly.
Leo ignored him and picked up Wyatt. "How are you doing buddy?" His son smiled happily, giggling as Leo kissed his nose.
Thoroughly annoyed at being ignored, Chris stalked out of the room. When he had just reached the end of the hallway, yet another loud explosion could be heard. A protective instinct took over and Chris raced back to the attic.
There, Leo was knocked unconscious on the ground, and the demon was furiously stabbing at a blue shield over Wyatt, who was crying loudly, his face red and scared. Chris, staring at his hands, unsure what to do, looked around rapidly for any kind of weapon.
He couldn't help but feel disgusted looking at Leo, useless once again.
Again?
Chris threw those emotions aside. Suddenly, he decided to do something extremely reckless and possibly stupid. He charged at the demon, praying one of the sisters would hear the noise and kill the demon.
Leaping onto the demon from behind, Chris placed his hands around the demon's neck, squeezing certain pressure points. The demon let out a choked sound and attempted to throw Chris off.
"Chris!" Piper's commanding voice yelled from the doorway, "Get off him so I can have a clear shot!"
Chris did as he was told and slid off the demon, pushing himself as far away from the demon as possible.
With just a mere flick of her fingers, Piper blew the demon up.
Wyatt, still bawling, was picked up by Piper, who was trying to calm him down in a soothing voice.
Meanwhile, Paige kneeled down next to Leo. "Hey!" she called to him, shaking his shoulders.
Leo groaned and suddenly sat up, his eyes averting suddenly. "Where's Wyatt?"
"Right here," Piper answered, finally able to calm her son down.
Leo sighed in relief. "I'm so sorry, Piper, I didn't even see him coming . . ."
"Damn right you should be sorry!" Chris erupted suddenly.
"Chris . . ." Piper said warningly.
Chris glared at him, getting up to his feet. "Where the hell were you when the demon was trying to kill Wyatt?"
Leo too got to his feet, his expression livid. The corner of his mouth was tight, and his eyes blazed with anger. "I was unconscious. And don't you dare lecture me about parenting skills. After all, how are we to know if you intend on hurting Wyatt?"
"Stop it, you two!" Piper scolded, worry evident on her face. But neither acknowledged her.
"God, you're so freaking arrogant. You know what? You're as arrogant as you are useless. Actually, you're as arrogant as you are acrappy father . . ."
Slap.
Chris recoiled, holding one hand on his stinging cheek, stunned. Suddenly, he staggered backwards, his eyes closed shut as something rushed through his head painfully.
He was no longer in the room with the rest of them. Instead, Chris was in Wyatt's room, watching the three sisters' arms linked, strutting out of the room with victorious smiles on their faces. It was a recent memory, that's for sure, here, in Chris's past/present.
Chris smiled at the sight of the sisters happy, and spread his arms wide. "It looks like we're one big happy family again!"
His turned around to who he was speaking to. Leo.
Leo merely stared at him coldly, a small, amused smile on his lips. His reply was laced with ice.
"You're not family." He locked eyes with Chris's stunned green eyes indifferently for a moment, then walked away to join his wife and sister-in-laws.
Leo Wyatt had not physically slapped him in that moment, but with the impact that one statement made, Chris wished he actually had slapped him instead of saying those few, cruel words.
Then the memory was gone and Chris was back in the present, Paige's worried eyes filling up his vision. "Hey, you okay?"
"No," he snapped viciously before apologizing, "Sorry, it's just . . . flashback."
Piper and Paige exchanged glances. "Your memory's coming back?"
"Just . . . flashes of it," Chris ended lamely.
"Well, at least that's something. What'd you see?" Piper asked innocently.
Chris glared at her. "You know I can't tell you that. Future–"
"–consequences, yeah, we know," Piper ended dryly. "Even with your memory gone, you're still sticking with your shtick, aren't you?"
Chris grinned. "Yup."
The moment was broken by Wyatt's whimpers.
"Aw, are you tired?" Piper cooed. "Let's go take you to bed."
Piper paused at the door, sending an intimidating glare at both her husband and whitelighter, "As for you two, go sort out whatever issues you have. And don't break anything!"
"You know, you don't have to listen to Piper," Chris whined. He and Leo were both sitting in the attic together against their will. Leo seemed to be uncomfortable, but determined all the same.
Leo shrugged and leaned back into the chair. "Piper will give us an earful if we don't try at the very least."
Chris scoffed. "Please. Like you really want to try."
Leo's eyes were hard and cold. Obviously, he didn't take to Chris's sarcasm. "I do have questions, which you no doubt have perfectly constructed lies to, but seeing as you have no memory, I can't get anything useful."
Each word Leo uttered only intensified Chris's hatred for the man. He snapped.
"Fine then. I guess I'll ask you the questions." He paused for dramatic effect. "Why do you hate me? More importantly, why do I hate you?"
Leo's eyes locked with Chris's. "You sent me to Valhalla, my own personal hell, lied and manipulated us all, and are most likely planning to hurt my son. As for you hating me . . ." he leaned in closer, his blue eyes intense, "you tell me."
Suddenly, Chris clutched his head in pain again.
Not again!
This time, Chris was a little kid, only eight. He was wearing a pointed, cone shaped hat that said "Birthday Boy" on it. There were several opened presents around him, and a hell of a lot of wrapping paper. But what little Chris was focused on was a single envelope, clutched tightly in his hand.
Careful not to cut himself, Chris opened the envelope. He gingerly took the card out, which had angels on the front cover. Carefully opening the card, he read the words bitterly,
Dear Chris,
I'm sorry I wasn't able to make your birthday party this year. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Hope it was fun. I love you very much, Chris. Happy Birthday!
Love, Dad.
Chris closed the letter shut with unnecessary force, causing a wrinkle in the paper. He bit his quivering lip, absolutely devastated.
I'll make it up to you, I promise.
That's exactly what his father had said last year, the year before that, and the year before that.
Chris shook his head vigorously, bringing himself back into the present. His palms felt clammy, and he was sweating a little.
Suddenly, both Leo and Chris felt a strange, magical sensation spreading through them.
The hate Chris was feeling suddenly intensified tenfold, and he could see it in Leo's eyes too. He stood up suddenly, the anger taking over, devouring him and every other feeling.
"You son of a–" But Chris couldn't finish his sentence, because Leo immediately tackled him.
Chris's chair toppled over as he was propelled backwards. Leo, fury contorting his face, raised his arm and connected his fist with Chris's face.
Groaning from attack, feeling the blood flowing freely from his nose, Chris only felt more infuriated.
Screaming in hatred, he kneed Leo's abdomen, causing the older man to recoil in pain and giving Chris a chance to push Leo off him.
But just as Chris started to recover, Leo grabbed his legs from under him and Chris fell to the floor with a heavy thump.
Leo smiled sinisterly, the spell cast on him having fully taken affect.
Chris really didn't like that smile, and decided to wipe it off his face. But after he landed the blow on Leo's face, the grin was still plastered on.
Uh-oh.
Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Paige winced as she heard the muffled thumping from above them.
"Don't you think we should go up and, uh, check on them?" Paige suggested.
"Why?" Piper asked distractedly, fussing around the kitchen, "They need to work out their differences."
Paige stared worriedly through the floorboards. "Yeah, but . . . it sounds kind of loud up there."
Her older sister sighed. "I guess you're right. Let's–"
An even louder thump caused Piper to jump reflexively, and the sound of screams solidified her resolve.
"Orb! Now!" she barked at Paige urgently.
Chris was in agony. He could feel every single individual shock pulsing from Leo's fingertips through his body.
The excruciating pain didn't leave for much thought, but one thought did manage to form itself in Chris's mind:
Can someone who's already dead die again?
Leo was sending out blue thunderbolts from his hands, directed towards Chris with a sick, twisted smile on his face.
God, I'm going to die, again.
He hated him. He hated Leo's smile, he hated his helplessness against him.
Someone help . . .
"Oh my god, Leo!" A woman's voice shrieked out in shock.
Chris sighed in relief as the pain went away, as his electrocution ceased. He crumpled to the ground in exhaustion; too beat down to notice his fatal wounds. He could feel himself slipping away, everything becoming darker and darker . . .
"Leo, what the hell were you thinking?" Piper demanded, disgusted and confused by her husband's violent, uncharacteristic behavior. "Heal Chris right now!"
But her husband's expression remained defiant, and he answered simply, "No."
Piper stared at Leo with disbelief. "Leo! You can't just let him die!"
"Oh, I think I can," Leo answered casually.
"Leo!" Piper raised her hands warningly, "Don't make me blow you up again."
But he merely smirked. "I'd like to see you try."
Piper made good with her threat and flicked her hands, turning Leo into a swirl of blue orbs.
"We've got to do something," Paige urged Piper, examining Chris; "He's been beat up pretty bad."
Piper was panicking. There was no way they were going to let Chris die, not before they saved Wyatt, not before they finally solve the mystery to his identity.
All she knew was that she couldn't let Chris die, not like this.
"A spell," Piper said suddenly, urgently grabbing a pad of paper and a pencil. "We've got to write a spell,"
"Ok," Paige tried to think fast. After a few scrambled moments of attempts at rhyming, they began to chant, praying that it would work:
We call upon the Halliwell power
That this incident won't turn sour
For Chris please use the power to heal
Allow him once again to feel
Golden lights, much like the ones that emitted from a whitelighter's hands, surrounded Chris, engulfing him in it, until it finally faded. He was healed.
"It worked!" Piper sighed in relief.
Then she frowned. There was obviously more going on here than she originally thought. Piper turned to face her husband, her expression betraying her worry about him.
But before Piper could say anything, Chris spoke up, true hatred blazing in his bright green eyes.
"You–bastard!" he sputtered out, almost unable to form words. What he was feeling now was beyond loathing, it was pure, simple, hatred.
Leo's eyes widened at the natural hatred Chris was shooting his way. This was not spell induced; it was the real thing. In that moment of shock, Leo could feel the uncontrollable anger leaving him.
"Oh my god, Chris, I'm so sorry," Leo stuttered, completely stunned and horrified at what he had just done. He didn't like Chris, nor did he trust his motives but Leo is not a killer; at least, not in cold blood like that was.
But his apology was lost on the whitelighter. In fact, it only made Chris hate him more.
"You actually think . . ." Chris trailed off, practically spitting out his words. He shook Paige's arm off him and orbed out, his eyes still boring into Leo's.
Leo watched Chris orb away, then collapsed onto a nearby chair.
Piper leaned down next to her husband. "Leo . . . why did you try to kill Chris?"
He didn't answer for a minute. When Leo finally spoke, it was in a soft voice, "I think whoever's turning Wyatt is going to do it very soon. This . . . it's all a distraction from our son."
Piper was quiet. "You didn't answer my question, Leo."
"I–I think someone cast a spell on both of us, to make us fight each other,"
Nodding slowly, Piper wrapped her arms around Leo tenderly. "You know, I still think I'm right. You're going to have to resolve whatever problems you guys have . . . without trying to kill each other in the process."
Leo didn't answer, he just stared ahead, the memory of what he just did replaying in his mind over and over again, haunting him.
Chris sat on the Golden Gate Bridge, his eyes closed, his ears appreciating the silence of the place, with nothing but the wind's soft, cold breeze caressing him.
Damn. He tried to trust them, he really did. He must have done something really bad to Leo.
But Chris seriously doubted it was so bad that Leo felt he needed to kill him.
Something was wrong, that he knew. Just the suddenness of it all, made it seem demonic or whatever.
Right now, Chris could care less about demons, witches, and angels. All he wanted to do now was to forget what just happened, forget the feeling of being electrocuted to death.
He wanted to forget that strange, familiar feeling of betrayal.
What Chris didn't know was that someone was watching him. Someone he knew, but didn't know. Someone who had a small smirk on their face as they watched Chris's inner turmoil, relishing in it.
Someone who, at that moment, was proceeding to the next phase of the plan.
